It truly is not protected for me to fly. Can I get a refund for my AA ticket?

Expensive Journey TROUBLESHOOTER: I lately employed component of a $721 ticket credit history on American Airways to guide a flight from Fort Myers, Florida, to Birmingham, Alabama, to see my grandson carry out with the Alabama Ballet. I utilized $616 in credit rating and compensated a $200 adjust fee.

However, that was one particular of the initially weekends of the pandemic, so the Alabama Ballet canceled its performances. I canceled the flight, fearful of the virus. This still left me with a credit history of $616, which is fantastic until eventually early 2021.

I am turning 86 in a pair of months. The pandemic has developed considering the fact that then, and since I am in the most susceptible age group, I am not likely any where and am unlikely to journey for a extensive time, if at all. That is a good deal of funds to throw absent and not be capable to use. I am as a result requesting a refund, or an choice if there is one, to get a credit I can allow for an individual else to use.

American Airways will not offer a refund or a voucher that I can enable a person else use. Can you aid me?

— Betty Barrett, Huntington, West Virginia

Reply: American Airlines ought to support you use your credit — but technically, it doesn’t have to.

The conditions of your ticket invest in ended up clear. You experienced a nonrefundable ticket, which permitted you to terminate your flight and get a credit rating. Back then, American also charged a $200 modify rate (it has given that stopped the practice for most tickets).

Your situation is a very little difficult. You canceled your first ticket and obtained a $721 credit. Then you rebooked a new flight, paying out a modify charge, and canceled your 2nd ticket. That left you with another credit. But you just cannot use that credit now simply because of the pandemic.

Airlines are not in a great area. They insist that traveling is protected, but the threats of travel through the pandemic are plain. If you are in an at-chance group, being residence is a sensible go, even if you shed the price of your ticket credit history.

American Airways should really have proven some compassion considering the fact that you are in a superior-threat age group. But as I by now talked about, it didn’t have to. It was subsequent the rules of your first ticket obtain. And you agreed to those people procedures when you booked your authentic flight.